You cannot deny that vampires are HOT in today’s market. Between Urban Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Paranormal Romance, Erotica, and let’s not forget the super popular YA market, vampires are taking over.
Not that I think that is a bad thing. I’ve been a die-hard vampire lover since I read my first novel, The Vampire Diaries, by LJ Smith. I believe I was about 10 years old at the time (Ooh, I’m dating my self. Strike that from the record).
There was just something about those creatures of the night that struck me. Perhaps it was the mystique, maybe it was the ability to be the ultimate bad boy (let’s face it, you know we deny it but we women do love a bad boy.), maybe it was the power and immortality.
I was hooked, plain and simple.
From that moment on I devoured anything, vampire related, I could find.
Combine that love, with a desire to create and that sparked the idea to write my own stories.
And that brings us back to the recent surge in popularity of vampires.
It’s not enough to just write a vampire story. You have to give a little oomph to it. Like it or not the, “sparkly vampires” that were created in Twilight, show us a perfect example of this concept. Whether or not you like them, Mrs. Meyers did something different. She took an old idea and added a fresh twist. The market is hugely competitive at the moment; so, to stand out, you have to have something to give your audience that they might not get with another story.
We all know the standard vampire themes: Vampires cannot handle sunlight, crosses (or any holy relics for that matter) are a great deterrent, garlic is supposed to be toxic, and a stake through the heart makes a good killing weapon.
When writing my story, I asked myself, why? Why can’t vampires handle the sunlight? Why do holy relics bother them? I wanted to give the reader a real, solid reason behind the answers to these questions. I wanted to make my vampires real enough to step out of the pages.
With all that in mind, I wanted to deliver a story that let you experience, with the main character, the transformation from human to full fledged vampire. While reading, you will learn what it takes to be a vampire; you will experience the gut wrenching feeling of blood lust. You will make your first kill. You will feel the high and experience the guilt. If you can get over that, you will learn to hone your new supernatural abilities. In the end, you might even like being a creature of the night.
In Immortals Carpe Noctem, vampires inhabit a world identical to our own. They follow a few of the standard vampire themes and the ones they don’t follow are explained. They live mostly solitary lifestyles and remain secret because they know the danger in being out in the open.
Don’t get me wrong, my vampires are not weaklings, but let’s face it, when your confined to the indoors during the daylight hours, you do have to be careful who knows what you really are.
Because of their nature and need for fresh, live blood, they generally do not live en masse. Too many dead bodies might be a bit of a giveaway, don’t you think?
Not to mention they are, and have been hunted for centuries, by a secret and very powerful organization called the Acta Sanctorum.
Immortalis follows Alyssa, a fortunate (or unfortunate, you be the judge) girl who was rescued from a brutal mugging, by the least likely of saviors; a two-thousand year old loner named Lysander.
Alyssa awakens as a vampire and is soon devastated by harsh realities of her new way of life: the loss of her friends, her independence, and worst of all, her humanity.
As if that weren’t enough to make life interesting, she finds out her “turning”, did not go unnoticed. The Acta Sanctorum has caught wind of some strange activity in Las Vegas and sent their top hunter, Santino Vitale, to eradicate the problem.
Meanwhile, Lysander’s old mate has learned of Alyssa’s turning as well and has a bit of a jealousy problem. Let me tell you this, hell hath no fury like a vampire mistress scorned.
There is no time to whine about the loss of her mortal life, Alyssa has to come to terms with the changes quickly because there at two separate enemies ready to take her new found immortality away.
To survive as a vampire, one must learn to, Carpe Noctem (Seize the Night).
Now that I’ve given you a taste of my vampires, I’d love to hear some of your thoughts. Tell me what your ideal vampires are like. What powers should they possess? What weapons should defeat them … or not?
I’ve got a copy of Immortalis Carpe Noctem to give away to one lucky commenter. Who will it be?
Find Immortalis Carpe Noctem at online retailer Amazon.com or visit the publisher’s website for an autographed copy.
http://www.risingsignbooks.com/
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